LANGUAGE ARTS
Our Lady of Peace Catholic School believes the study of Language Arts teaches students how to effectively communicate and how to use related knowledge and contexts to synthesize information into meaningful messages.
In order to be truly effective in teaching and in our ability to move students along in their literacy development, classroom assessment and instruction must be closely related.
The 2010 Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in English Language Arts, which use the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects, have been adopted for standards alignment with the Language Arts curriculum.
BEST PRACTICE IN TEACHING LANGUAGE ARTS (reading/writing)
Each teacher who teaches reading strives to increase the use of best practice in teaching reading through:
1. Guiding Principles
- Reading high quality literature aloud to students
- Reading independently
- Choosing reading materials based on independent reading levels
- Exposing children to a wide and rich range of literature
- Modeling and discussing his/her own reading processes
2. Primary instructional emphasis on comprehension
3. Teaching reading as a process
- Using strategies that activate prior knowledge
- Helping students make and test predictions
- Guiding reading
- Providing high-order applications after-reading
4. Social, collaborative activities with much discussion and interaction
5. Silent reading followed by discussion
6. Teaching skills in the context of whole and meaningful literature
7. Writing before and after reading
8. Encouraging invented spelling in children’s early writings
9. Use of reading in content fields
10. Evaluation focused on holistic, higher-order thinking processes
11. Measuring success of reading program by students’ reading habits, attitudes, and comprehension
Each teacher who teaches reading strives to increase the use of best practice in teaching writing through:
1. Student ownership and responsibility by:
- Helping students choose their own topics and goals for improvement
- Using brief teacher-student conferences
- Teaching students to review their own progress
- Offering constructive feedback to individual writing
2.Class time on writing whole, original pieces through:
- Using real purposes and audiences for writing
- Supporting all stages of writing
- Prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing
3. Teacher modeling writing
- Drafting, revising, sharing
- Demonstrating processes
4. Learning grammar and mechanics in context, in the editing process and as items are needed
5. Making the classroom a supportive setting, using:
- Active exchange and valuing students’ ideas
- Collaborative small-group work
- Conferences and peer critiquing that give responsibility to authors
6. Writing across the curriculum as a tool for learning
7. Constructive and efficient evaluation that involves:
- Informal oral responses as students write
- Focused attention on a few traits at a time thorough grading of just a few of student-selected, polished pieces
- A cumulative view of growth and self-evaluation
- Encouragement of risk taking and honest expression